Who takes the sink plugs???

The second day we were at our house I went to wash dishes - no drain plugs! Who takes the drain plugs with them when they move??? The next night I went to give the kids a bath and guess what, yep, no bath tub plug! Check the bathroom sink - no sink plug either! I don't know if this has ever happened to anyone else but I have always left the plugs behind when I move. Anyways, we went to Rona and checked out the sink plug section - you wouldn't believe the options that are available! We guessed right on the bathroom sink and the bathtub plugs but it took two tries to get drain plugs for the kitchen. Which meant I washed dishes for 2 weeks without a plug! Not impossible but definitely more challenging. And how did I give the kids a bath? Thanks to Daniel's suggestion, I stuffed a washcloth into the drain and as the water slowly leaked out I just kept adding a little bit more water. :)

Ontario Science Centre!

I've finally taken the time to sit down and write another post! I had grand plans of blogging every couple of days but between unpacking and company life has been full! We had a good time with friends of ours that were dropping their son off at Toronto Baptist Seminary (TBS). They were able to stay 4 days and after they left my friend Luella flew into Toronto for three weeks to visit her family in Ontario. We spent most of today at the Ontario Science Centre with her and tomorrow we go to the Toronto Zoo. The Science Centre was a lot of fun - we didn't see all of it but that's okay because I purchased a Gold Member's Pass which gives free admission, free parking, and free IMAX movies all year (all for only $230) and since we will be homeschooling this year (more on that in a future post!) I plan to take the kids regularly. Nathan loved the "Under the Sea" IMAX movie but Noelle and Jeremy weren't too sure. It is pretty powerful to feel completely surrounded by picture and sound.

Thanks to Luella for the pictures (I forgot my camera!)

Daniel wasn't able to come to the Science Centre with us because he was at a retreat for school. Tuesday was his orientation day TBS, Wednesday he had off (we hit IKEA, Rona, and Wal-Mart and we should hopefully be done buying and assembling furniture, or finding furniture on Kijiji or Freecycle! Yeah!), and Thursday and Friday he had a retreat with all full time students and the staff from TBS. They had a pastor share three messages, free time in the afternoon and a campfire in the evening where new students shared their testimony. He enjoyed getting to meet everyone and it sets a great tone for the beginning of the year. Monday the works begins Daniel!

Toronto and driving!

Well, our Internet and phone was finally hooked up on Monday and I have subscribed to Freecycle and Kijiji looking for some furniture so keeping on top of emails is a full time job :) We found a few possibilities on desks through Kijiji and then they fell through. Then Daniel found a store called "Source Liquidation" that has used furniture from hotels at good prices. We headed there today and have bought two desks and a bookshelf! Getting there was interesting though without our GPS (forgot at home) and the address (forgot at home but thought we could find it!) After stopping twice for directions and help we finally found it 40 minutes later! Thankfully we didn't have to go on the 400, 401 or 402. If you don't know Toronto those are the freeways. The 12 lane BUSY freeways! The rest of Toronto often feels like Edmonton to us (maybe just more cars on the road) but we've never experienced highways like this before. Daniel has done a great job and the GPS is (usually) a huge help. Occasionally, the GPS has taken us the long way around! Anyways, once Daniel starts school next week I will get to start practicing my driving again. I'll let you know how it goes!

I have sent out an email with our new contact information including email. If I somehow missed you, let me know and I'll forward it on to you!

Thanks for all the comments! It is great to hear from you and feel connected. One of the desks we bought today is for my scrapbook space so hopefully I'll be able to start to getting my fingers dirty with inks, glue and paper soon!

Home!

We made it to our new home by noon on Wednesday! The movers did a great job and we were actually able to walk around because they had stacked the boxes so well. This did make it a little difficult to find certain boxes though - such as the ones with pillows and bedding! The kids had fun checking out our place and I am so thankful for a backyard with green grass for them to run on!  I just kept tackling box and after box and I am slowly making a dent. Daniel got Nathan's bed built (the movers didn't do that one!) and the playhouse built for the kids in the backyard. We have just spent two hours this afternoon at the public library which is a 4 block walk away and has free library membership! Until Monday it is also our only access to the Internet! The kids have picked out a bunch of books and a few movies (not that we have our TV set up yet :)

It's great to hear from everyone that writes comments! More later - my time expires in 3 minutes!

Day 6 - London, ON, Canada

We made it back to Canada - back to expensive restaurants and hotels, slower speed limits, higher gas prices and Treehouse! The kids had fun watching Treehouse tonight and I didn't need to worry about what they were watching :) It is comforting to be back in Canada though - kilometres not miles, Celsius not Fahrenheit, Canadian money, our healthcare system (it's strange to see billboards advertising hospitals!)

Nathan and Noelle decided yesterday that they were glad we didn't fly - this was way better! By driving, they got to stay in a hotel and swim 5 out of 6 days, eat out at a restaurant every night and get special goodies every morning (I had bags labeled "Day 1", "Day 2", etc). Thank you to both of our families who added to my bags (and even gave some surprise goodies for Daniel and I!). It has been a good holiday for us as a family.

We had a late start this morning. After sleeping in until 9 am we didn't leave our hotel until almost 11 am (we still haven't adjusted to the Eastern Time change)! Breakfast was served until 10 though and it was another hot breakfast!

We enjoyed our hour and a half finding books at the new & used Christian bookstore in Grand Rapids, called "Baker Book House". We all found some books and Daniel now has most of his books for school. After finding a grocery store close by we ate our lunch as we drove and arrived in London, ON around 6 pm. Daniel has done a great job driving - it is wonderful to have a husband that enjoys driving since I'd much rather be the passenger. Having the GPS (which we bought when at my parents) means that most of the time the navigating isn't up to me! I am just another set of eyes!

The border crossing went well and it turns out that even though you can't bring meat, dairy, fruit or vegetables into the States, you can take them out with you! I guess that's because we import most of them anyways :)


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We went for supper at Tony Roma's - the last night on the road and then went swimming. All three kids are like little fish and their swimming is getting better all the time. Noelle asked if as soon as we got to our house tomorrow we could go swimming! I think the end of the holiday will be a shock to all of us :)

It is "only" 167 km to our address in Toronto so we plan to be there by noon and start tackling the boxes. Daniel signed up for a phone tonight so we should have a working phone by Monday (which means no Internet at home until Monday so I think we will be finding the nearest library quite quickly!) I'll be posting sporadically now but will continue to share our adventures in Toronto as well as share scrapbook pages and ideas of mine!

Day 5 - Grandville, MI

Today started out as the hardest day yet. Everyone was tired and a little cranky waking up. We did have an amazing continental breakfast at the Best Western (eggs, sausages, hashbrowns, waffles) but once driving the crankiness started again. We entered a toll road in Wisconsin and missed paying the first toll. However, after stopping at an "oasis" rest stop and checking in the with toll road customer service, getting a map getting a Starbucks Frappuccino and eating some gummies we all did much better.

It was interesting paying to drive on a toll road - a first for us! We ended up paying five different times today and will have some toll roads tomorrow as well. Most of them were $0.80 or a $1.00 but one in Chicago was $3.00!

It was interesting today to drive through 4 states - Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, and Michigan! I showed Nathan on the map so he could get a sense of where we were driving.

If you click the "-" button and zoom out on this map, you'll be able to see where we drove today! (Thanks for the idea Allison!)


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Driving through Chicago was somewhat hairy. We went through just after noon so the traffic wasn't too bad - meaning there was lots of it but it kept moving! Daniel wondered if rush hour would almost be better - at least then we wouldn't be going so fast and we'd have more time to figure out which exit we'd want and which lane we should be in! The kids enjoyed looking out the window though because there was lots to see.

We finally stopped for lunch at 2 pm at a Bass Pro Shop at Portage, Indiana. It's funny - we haven't had a chance to check out the Bass Pro Shop near Calgary but visit one on our way to Toronto! The kids enjoyed seeing all the animals and it gave us a chance to stretch our legs and Daniel to unwind. We ended up eating while we drove again and made it to Grandville by 5 pm - which was actually 6 pm because of the time change. Just when we thought we'd get in earlier it's still late! We went for a swim right away and then had supper at 8pm, but it only felt like 7 pm :) We solved the TV problem with the kids watching Curious George videos on the laptop! They finally fell asleep at 11 pm EST  - Noelle and Jeremy had napped the last hour of driving which made for happy kids but not ones that wanted to go to bed. Sigh, oh well, only one more night!

Granville, Jenison, and Grand Rapids are where Daniel's brother-in-law Russ has family that we know but since we've really only been planning a day ahead we haven't contacted them! Next time we'll have to plan before we leave and not spend time each night planning. At least, we shouldn't be moving at the same time!

Tomorrow, we are going to stop in Grand Rapids at two different bookstores recommended to me by Juanita that will have theology books for Daniel for school. They will also have other books, including used so the kids are excited about being able to pick out some books for themselves. I am hoping for a quiet hour or two after we leave the bookstores! We are heading to London after that, about 5 hours so we only have a 2 hour drive on Wednesday to our new home. It will be good to get there and start the unpacking process. It still seems a little unreal though to think that will be our "home".

Day 4 - Madison, WI

We've crossed into another state and are now in Wisconsin! We attended church at Bethlehem Baptist this morning and really enjoyed it. It was different going to a large church - I dropped Jeremy off at nursery at the beginning of the service (an usher told me that I should check him in right away because sometimes it fills up and there is no room left!) I received a computerized sticker matching his number and a pager in case he needed me. Jeremy went right in and had a great time. I know this set-up is common now in big churches but it is amazing to me with only small town church experiences! The sermon was on idols of our hearts and how anyone or anything that is more important or more of a priority than God is an idol and how really that is the baseline of fighting the good fight. It is our default nature to focus our time and energy on things of this world. Definitely a challenge I need to continually apply to my life. I was thinking how easily things like education, sports, scrapbooking, work etc can become idols. If you are interested, the message will be posted here.

After church, we found a Co-op (pronounced "cub" - it took as awhile to figure out what store they were referring to when we asked for a suggestion at church!) grocery store nearby and bought groceries for lunch to eat in a nearby park. My sister Janine and friend Susan would have loved this grocery store! It was organic to the core, i.e. they sold nothing but organic and most of it was local. The turkey breast sandwich meat we had was "organic, free range, hormone free, antibotics free and nitrate free! Now this is probably what I grew up eating and never gave it another thought :) The other thing that blew me away there was the "junk food". They had a bulk section and I thought maybe I'd buy some smarties for us to share. Nope - only one kind of dark chocolate candy and that was it! Oh and carob chips (carob is like chocolate but better for us I guess.) All the chocolate bars they sold were organic as well so between cost and the high probability that my kids probably wouldn't eat it anyways I didn't get any chocolate. I guess we're eating healthier already! :)

Nathan said the playground we ate lunch at was the best he has ever been to! It was just a playground across from an apartment building but it had quite unique structures for the kids. I'll try to upload a picture or two of it tomorrow night!

We drove another 4 1/2 hours stopping for supper at a town along the way and then arrived in Madison around 8:30 pm. All of us, except for Daniel had a good long nap which made for a mostly quiet trip! After we checked in it was off to the pool right away (which works really well - they always have excess energy to burn and running and yelling in the hotel room is very annoying) and then to bed.

I haven't mentioned the weather yet. It has been really nice weather. Not a hint of rain and sun all day. In fact, it has been quite hot! We've had the air conditioner going non-stop. We haven't actually seen a thermometer but we're estimating 30C and up the last three days. When we were at the park today the kids were running but I found it hot, hot, hot!

Tomorrow is off to drive around Chicago and onto Grandville (close to Grand Rapids). It will be about 5 hours driving but we're going to try to arrive at our hotel earlier and maybe get the kids to bed earlier!